I have a customer wanting to hide the identity of a particular component on a PCB assembly. The product cannot be potted and since the PCB is the product he doesn't want to pour over that one chip for aesthetics reasons. Any ideas on ways to permanently hide component part numbers that wouldnt be too labor intensive. Thanks

How is the component marked. Is it ink marked, laser marked or what? What is the material that the marking on? What volume are you looking at? We used a small, pencil-sized sand blaster, loaded with bicarbonate of soda to errode the mark off of plastic parts. If it is laser marked it can be made to visually disappear by applying a thin film of transparent, high gloss conformal coating. The laser simply changes dulls the device surface which makes it (barely) visable.

Doug: To remove paints, we've tried a bunch of stuff like messy, hazardous chemicals (ie, methylene chloride, xylene, toulene). We've blasted (erzat been blasted???), like Stu says. We used etching pens. Auuuurgh!!! Now, we paint over them with inks from Markum (800.462.7536 717.545.8606). (There'sa bunch of ink suppliers out there. Yer choice) Just dab some (we like black, not too jazzy) on with a sponge, cure it (air, oven, UV yer choice), and yer good to go. Ta. Dave F

This technique is commonly known as "black boxing". The majority of IC's are marked with ink. Simply use a tiny piece of sandpaper to "scratch the surface" and render the device blank. This will work with Laser marked parts as well. If your volumes are signifficant have the component manufacturer print an "in-house" number of your selection to aid in security.